Abstract
M.Ed. (Educational Psychology)
Violence and aggression is a worldwide phenomenon in the sports industry, especially in team sports like hockey. Scant research has been done on the topic, namely how players of a team sport like hockey, experience aggression.
This research aims to explore and describe secondary school learners' experiences of aggression in a sport like hockey. On the basis of the results, guidelines and recommendations were made to facilitate them in dealing with the aggression in the right ways. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design was used. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews, observations and field notes. Tesch's (1990) method for data analysis was used and a consensus discussion held with an independent coder. The uniqueness of this study is the exploration and description of secondary school students' experiences of aggression in a hockey team.
The results clearly show that aggression is experienced on a regular basis during training or playing a game. The contributory factors include that aggression in hockey is experienced as a positive or negative incentive to achieve certain goals in the game, the coach's handling of spectators’ influence, and characteristics that contribute to hockey being a sport for discharging stress. The consequences of the aggression to players are emotional, psychological and physical in nature. It takes the form of fear, anger, frustration, powerlessness, helplessness and hopelessness. Further consequences are players’ absence from practices and games, the development of an I-do-not-care attitude and injuries. Guidelines for the managing of this phenomenon and recommendations for future research are described.